EP 58: A House Fire, a 2AM Call, and a Career in Parking with Melissa Jones

In this episode of Harder Than It Looks, host Brian Wolff sits down with Melissa Jones, PTMP, Director of Customer Experience at TEZ Technology.

Melissa’s road into parking wound began with a career in counseling and crisis work with at-risk kids and families. That work taught her how to sit with people in the middle of a crisis, big or small, and help them work through it. These skills ended up translating directly into leading teams and supporting customers who call in with their own version of an emergency.

Counseling and parking kept pulling her back and forth until it finally stuck for good, taking her through managing parking at Class A office buildings, a stint at Parking Soft that turned into a decade at T2, and now her role at TEZ.

Melissa and Brian dig into how that unlikely combination of backgrounds quietly built the leader she is today. The conversation covers building trust quickly in high-pressure environments, creating health conflict without ill will, what it takes to lead technically strong but low-EQ team members, and how the industry’s growing number of strong woman leaders are changing the game.

Key Takeaways

1. Your background is never wasted. Melissa’s years in counseling and crisis management, and her work as a fitness coach, translate directly into how she leads teams and supports customers today.

2. Bedrock leadership is about openness, not skill. Melissa can teach anyone the software or the job. What she can’t teach is flexibility, empathy, and a willingness to learn. Those traits must come from the person.

3. Healthy conflict starts with relevance.  Melissa’s approach to hard conversations is simple: make it relevant to the person in front of you and ask how you’d want someone you love to be treated.

4. Trust is built by walking the walk. Having answered the phones and taken the heated calls herself, Melissa leads by showing up in the lane, owning it when things go sideways, and never throwing her team to the wolves.

5. The industry has changed – and so have the leaders. As From hauling a coin canister through snowy parking lots to today’s technology and customer experience standards, Melissa has watched the industry raise its bar, along with a growing wave of strong women leaders shaping its future.

Episode Highlights

[02:00] Melissa shares how she got started in counseling and how a friend first talked her into taking a parking manager job at a community college.